This new variety of lily plant originated as a seedling selected from a group of seedlings planted by me at Sandy, Ore., with seeds of a hybrid which resulted from my breeding efforts carried on with the object of producing new lily plants having blooms in the shades of orange and red, well suited for forcing for pot plant production out-of-season. The parent hybrid for this selected seedling was developed by me using a very short, cream-flowered clonal selection from the `Pastel Hybrids` strain as the seed parent and using the clonal cultivar `Red Carpet` (unpatented) as the pollen parent.
This particular seedling was selected for propagation because its flowers were characterized by a medium size, vivid orange to orange-red coloration, and an inconspicuous "ring" of very tiny spots parallel with the nectaries on each tepal and surrounding the center of the bloom, a color pattern unique in this type of lily, and asexual propagation of this selected seedling was done by me and under my direction at Sandy, Ore., by bulb scales and also by natural propagation from bulblets. Because the propagated plants appeared to possess all of the desired characteristics of excellence of form, color and habit, further propagation through several successive generations was carried on at Sandy, Ore., under my direction, which demonstrated clearly that the novel characteristics of my selected seedling would hold true from generation to generation and appeared to be firmly fixed.
I have found that this new variety remains short and is not overly susceptible to bud abortion when forced into flower out-of-season as a pot plant and, in addition, the clone possesses to a high degree the desirable characteristics of hybrid vigor, great hardiness, and disease resistance. Also, the clone is vigorous and a good grower and propagator as observed at Sandy, Ore. I have also found that the new plant is well suited to forcing out-of-season when the bulbs are dug at the appropriate time and properly precooled. For example, October-dug bulbs, properly precooled and potted in January, will flower under glass in western Oregon in an average of sixty-five to seventh-five days, with no supplementary lighting and at moderate greenhouse temperatures.